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“You remember how he said he was taking me to Pennsylvania to meet his family a month ago?”
Oz glanced at me briefly, then nodded over a bite of his food. “That’s why you were gone when I came back from Milan and left for Haven. You said it went fine.”
She looked down at her dinner and shook her head. “No. Not fine. That’s what I told you because I was so embarrassed. He actually took me to Jersey to his friend Roddy’s place. Roddy works the front desk at an abortion clinic.”
I felt my jaw tighten and glanced at Oz. He’d gone so pale, I actually reached out for his arm in case he passed out and slid out of his chair.
“The hell?” Oz growled in a low voice. I’d never heard such a sound come out of him before. “He was going to pressure you to get rid of it without even talking to you about it?”
Zoey’s chin trembled, but she held herself together. Tough cookie.
“Obviously I didn’t do it, Ozzie. I told them both to fuck off. And then I took the bus back to the city and swore I was never going to speak to him again. By the time I got back, you’d already come and gone. I think he did it that way on purpose. He wanted to make sure I couldn’t go running to you when I left him.”
Oz reached out to squeeze her hand before speaking. “Because he’s a goddamned manipulative coward.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Then what happened?”
I could tell he was trying very hard to hold it together–to not lose his shit in front of his best friend again.
She looked down again. This time she was rubbing her small, round belly the way pregnant women did without realizing what they were doing. I could tell she already felt protective of the life she was carrying.
“The usual stupid crap. He came crawling back all sad and sorry, and I fell for it.” She sighed and then let out a sad chuckle. “It took him about two weeks before he started in on me again about terminating the pregnancy. That’s when I finally realized I was on my own.”
“What made you decide to come to Haven?” I asked.
Big mistake.
Because Zoey burst into tears all over again.
“Oh, honey, what happened?” Oz asked as he stood up so he could hug her.
“I lost my job,” she said between sobs. “I had it all together, you know? I was gonna do the single mom thing and you’d be cool Uncle Oz, and I’d keep working and maybe go back to school while raising the kid and it was just gonna all work out and then…” She paused to suck in a breath, and I jumped up to grab a box of tissues from a side table and plopped them down on the table in front of her. She snatched one up. “And then my boss called me into his office and said they had to let me go because the company was going bankrupt…” She blew loudly into the tissue and Oz handed her several more. “It was a shitty job, you know, but it was all I had.”
“It’s not all you have,” Oz said almost angrily as he wrapped his arms around her. “You and your baby have me. I am going to be cool Uncle Oz and you’re going to come stay here with me, and when we get back to New York you’re going to move into my place with me and your kid is going to be the coolest, best-dressed kid ever. And he’s gonna have his kick-ass mom to thank for that.”
“And his Uncle Oz,” Zoey said between sniffles.
Oz kissed her temple. “And his Uncle Oz.”
Oz met my eyes over her head, and I felt my gut plunge because I knew what he was thinking.
The same thing I was.
There would be no Uncle Jake in Zoey’s kid’s life.
I forced myself to focus on Zoey as I reached across the table to take her hand. “Oz is right, honey. You’re going to stay here and let us take care of you until it’s time for you guys to go home.”
Oz looked at me with his heart in his eyes but didn’t say anything.
After all, what could he say? What could either of us say? This was the most we could give one another.
Oz returned to his seat and we resumed our meal. I heard a soft whine and looked down to see Boo sitting by my foot. I reached down to pick her up and fed her one of the little pieces of noodle I had left on my plate. “There’s no dairy in it,” I told her. She yipped and licked my nose.
“Did Oz ever tell you the story about how he got her?” Zoey asked softly. I looked up to see both Oz and her watching me.
